April 25, 2025
Please try this: sit and listen to the breathing. You can even produce a little bit of sound in order to turn the mind within. Once that is done, keep repeating the mantra, linking it with the breath. Then starts the most important part of meditation. You can take up any thread of inquiry that you like e.g. ‘Where does this sound come from?' 'who is sitting in my body repeating this mantra?' 'Where is it done?' But that inquiry must be full-blooded, not dull and drowsy.
In meditation the mind turns to look within without any effort — the less effort the better — but without going to sleep. One has to be tremendously alert — like walking on a precipice. Buddha gave us this hint: "live in this world as though you are living with a cobra in the room." Suppose you go back to your room, tired, you want to lie down and sleep, you hear a noise, switch on the light, and you see a cobra sitting right on the doorstep. What would you do? You would sit there 100% awake, all sleep gone! No one need teach you concentration at that time, and meditation will come by itself. The cobra at that time is truly like a mantra, your mind is nothing but a cobra. You would not be able to think of anything else! This is called meditation — when your whole being is filled with one object.
You must be keenly interested in discovering this truth. Otherwise the attention will be easily distracted. While you are repeating this mantra you probably hear an external sound. It seems as though all these things are happening remotely, you are not involved and so you are quite happy. Then the sound of a lawnmower becomes insistent, setting in motion a trend of thought. After about 10 minutes of drifting away you suddenly 'wake up'. How and why did that happen?
In the beginning it is a very interesting exercise, if you can treat it so, to watch and discover the distinction between the thought that is not of great interest to you, and another thought which seems to fly away with you. If you are watchful, vigilant, then you are able to avoid either of these taking you away. This again, needs a lot of diligent, vigilant practice. It is not a great miracle or magic — there are no miracles or magic in yoga. Self-discovery is the greatest and the only magic in yoga.